As the closure of a shelter on Smithfield Street nears, representatives of Allegheny County government informed an advisory board that they have focused on finding space for 125 people who will be displaced. The shelter’s operator, though, warned that “people will die” as a result of “this haphazard closure.”
Last week, the Allegheny County Department of Human Services [ACDHS] set the closure of the winter shelter in the gymnasium of the Smithfield United Church of Christ for the end of June, promising to find space for the shelter’s residents. During a contentious meeting of the Homeless Advisory Board [HAB] Tuesday, Andy Halfhill, ACDHS’ homeless services administrator, said the agency is working with Light of Life Rescue Mission, Second Avenue Commons and East End Cooperative Ministries [EECM] to provide space for some of the 125 people.
The new spaces will be available for up to six months.
Second Avenue Commons, which is run by Pittsburgh Mercy, is working to take on 40 people in that shelter’s overflow space before Smithfield shelter closes at the end of June, according to Linda Ross, Pittsburgh Mercy’s director of communications. She said that the space would have the same house rules that apply for other guests at Second Avenue Commons.
EECM plans on creating an additional 15 beds by the end of June and another 10 some time after that, according to Michael Bartley, the shelter’s vice president of development and public relations.
Light of Life has opened space for 20 new people, according to Jocelyn Buhite, the shelter’s communications coordinator. Buhite said this opening was “not just because the Smithfield shelter is closing. There’s an increased need in the community for a variety of reasons.”
Buhite noted that these beds would be available to people who were visibly intoxicated as long as they weren’t a “threat” to themselves or others.
Halfhill did not say exactly how many beds the three shelters would be able to provide and said ACDHS is working on similar arrangements with other shelters. Halfhill is also a member of the HAB.
In years past, the Smithfield shelter closed by mid-March, but ACDHS decided to keep the shelter open longer after it experienced maximum occupancy regularly.
There were 600 people who used the shelter in the last 30 days, according to the shelter’s operator Team PSBG. ACDHS identified around 125 people who they consider to be regular residents, according to Executive Director Erin Dalton, who attended the advisory board meeting. This group of people, Dalton said, need another option after the Smithfield shelter closes.
“Ideally, we get on top of this issue in a way we haven’t in the last year,” Dalton said. “Hopefully we bring on enough [emergency housing] capacity that’s safe for people.”
She said the Smithfield shelter “is not a great space” for extended use and referenced inadequate air conditioning. She said that the eventual goal is to run smaller shelters that will be “better for all.”
“The air conditioning is working just fine,” countered Aubrey Plesh, the founder of Team PSBG.
Dalton also said ACDHS has not decided what, if anything, to do with the Smithfield shelter next year.
Plesh said she was afraid shelter residents would die as a result of all of this movement.
“Smithfield is a landmark for our city. For over 40 years, this is where providers, first responders and, most importantly, the people served have come,” Plesh said. “I understand that it can’t exist indefinitely, but this haphazard closure is going to cause death and we need to hold people accountable for that.”
Plesh said Second Avenue Commons “isn’t accessible” and that police bring people in need to Smithfield, not Second Avenue Commons. Others during the meeting wondered if the three alternative shelters would be as “low barrier” as Smithfield, where couples can stay together in side-by-side cots whenever possible and being sober is not a prerequisite to getting a bed.
“Our providers are rethinking their policy and will change the way we look at things,” Dalton said, without providing details on potential changes at other shelters.
Dalton told the board that ACDHS would be working with the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership, a nonprofit development group, to pilot a van service that would help shuttle shelter residents to various services.
“People come here for help,” Plesh said of Smithfield. “They have a right to be here as much as other people.”
She said the Smithfield shelter residents were never given notice of the closure and instead had to find out via the press.
“That’s reprehensible,” Plesh said. “Nobody told them about the closure.”
Correction: Aubrey Plesh is not a member of the Homeless Advisory Board.
Eric Jankiewicz is PublicSource’s economic development reporter, and can be reached at ericj@publicsource.org or on Twitter @ericjankiewicz.
